You have to build a competitive farm team in order to properly develop younger players (at least IMO). Part of that is signing good AHL players and to do so you may have to sweeten the pot a bit by giving that NHL hope.

Last year the canucksat some point called up guys like Gordon, Joslin and Jensen. The year before Bitz, Duco, Sulzer etc.

There is a good chance that during the season you have to go 3 or 4 deep on the forwards and a couple deep on the blueline. Chances are if the parent club is needing to go a couple players deep that the farm team is also experiencing injuries and having to go a few deep into their ECHL depth. When those inievitable call ups happen, the player you want to bring up has to be healthy and preferably he is playing well. It means you need to stock the farm team with more than just a couple options on NHL deals.

Island Nucklehead, I don't think FAN is complaining about the two-way deals per se, I think he is just suggesting that a lot of these guys will never see one of those two pay grades so it's pointless to have them occupying a contract spot.

As far as I'm concerned I'd expect that the team has worked out how many contract spots they need this season for players on the NHL roster, players likely to see time there at some point and other prospects who won't but who need to be kept in the fold - and that when they offer an NHL deal to a career AHLer they're doing so with some level of certainty that it won't prevent them from improving the NHL club later.

Put it this way, I would guess the more important AHL players probably want to get an NHL contract and will wait on (and accept) a contract from an NHL team rather than simply signing with an AHL franchise - it is, I would guess, simply the price of doing business if you want to scoop up key players for your AHL franchise and the Canucks most definitely need to do that.. the cupboard is less bare than it was a year ago but no way do we have the talent to ice a winning AHL roster without outside help.

dbr wrote:Island Nucklehead, I don't think FAN is complaining about the two-way deals per se, I think he is just suggesting that a lot of these guys will never see one of those two pay grades so it's pointless to have them occupying a contract spot.

tantalum wrote:You have to build a competitive farm team in order to properly develop younger players (at least IMO). Part of that is signing good AHL players and to do so you may have to sweeten the pot a bit by giving that NHL hope.

Last year the canucksat some point called up guys like Gordon, Joslin and Jensen. The year before Bitz, Duco, Sulzer etc.

There is a good chance that during the season you have to go 3 or 4 deep on the forwards and a couple deep on the blueline. Chances are if the parent club is needing to go a couple players deep that the farm team is also experiencing injuries and having to go a few deep into their ECHL depth. When those inievitable call ups happen, the player you want to bring up has to be healthy and preferably he is playing well. It means you need to stock the farm team with more than just a couple options on NHL deals.

You always want capable guys as your "first call-ups". Preferably those guys are legitimate prospects. Otherwise, you have fringe NHL players with NHL experience such as Santorelli and Ferriero. But the preference for legitimate prospects is one of the reasons the Canucks acquired their own farm team in the first place. This year is suppose to be better than previous years as the farm team should be filled more with legitimate prospects than previous years. Sure there's nothing wrong with signing guys like Santorelli and Ferriero who have recent NHL experience to two two-way contracts or a young guy like Blain, but maybe you don't waste a contract on a 30 year old player who hasn't played in the NHL in years (Pascal Pelletier)? Nathan Longpre did well in camp but the Canucks didn't sign him to an NHL contract. They had the Wolves sign him. Purchasing AHL contracts is an easy matter. Again, it looks like the Comets are starting to sign their own players to fill out the roster so my question has been answered.

• The Anaheim Ducks will purchase the Norfolk Admirals AHL franchise and will relocate it from Norfolk, Va., to San Diego, Calif.

• The AHL franchise owned by the Calgary Flames will relocate from Glens Falls, N.Y., to Stockton, Calif.

• The AHL franchise owned by the Edmonton Oilers will relocate from Oklahoma City, Okla., to Bakersfield, Calif.

• The AHL franchise owned by the Los Angeles Kings will relocate from Manchester, N.H., to Ontario, Calif.

• The AHL franchise owned by the San Jose Sharks will relocate from Worcester, Mass., to San Jose, Calif.

The realignment is seen as both a strategic move for the five NHL teams that will now be closer to their prospects (who, with less travel time, will have more time to practice), and also as evidence that the popularity of hockey has grown by leaps and bounds in The Golden State.

“The immense growth of the game of hockey in the state of California shows that hockey fans here love the game and they support it,” said Sharks COO John Tortora.

“Having our top prospects playing on the same coast as our National Hockey League team will greatly enhance our ability to monitor and enhance their development.”

It’s not known at this point if there will be more teams moving west. The Vancouver Canucks, for example, are tied to Utica through next season, but are expected to explore their options ahead of 2016-17.

So now we gotta wait a short year and a half for the Comets to move to Cali, that'll be nice for our prospects!